Created by Nick Simons & Camilla Storm © Sprocket 2016

Contact: nick@sprocket.no / +47 45860756

SLED ZEPPELIN © Sprocket 2016

THE LOGLINE

Ylva, a curious elf, starts working at Santa’s factory. Ylva discovers that Santa and the reindeer have disappeared, leaving parents in charge of Christmas gifts. No-one told the elves. With help from Comet, the last reindeer, Ylva invents a new, airship-powered vehicle: the Sled Zeppelin, along with a plan to bring back the magic of Christmas. But can she manage without Santa, Rudolph and the reindeer? And who is sabotaging her plans?

Comet the Reindeer. Aging Comet is Ylva’s main ally. He is the only reindeer left at Santa’s factory. Ylva meets him in an old barn outside the factory and they quickly become firm friends. Comet has remained at the factory in the hope that Santa, his reindeer friends and the magic of Christmas will one day come back.

THE CHARACTERS:

Ylva the elf. Ylva, our main protagonist, is not your average factory elf. She is curious, perceptive, resourceful, imaginative and impulsive. She gets easily distracted, especially when she thinks there is an improvement to be made. But she is well-meaning and extremely kind. Although elves are immortal and ageless, Ylva resembles a 9-year old girl.

Santa. Santa disappeared a long

ago. Following a particularly busy,

stressful and tense Christmas, he booked a holiday and has

not been seen since. He never stopped loving Christmas, but

has completely lost track of how much time he’s been on the island.

Santa carries a device which allows him to manipulate time – how else

could he deliver so many presents in one day?

Other elves. Santa’s factory is reliant on an army of elves. Where Ylva struggles with the rules and regulations, the others fit in quite nicely. They follow directions, regulations and never, ever step over the yellow safety lines. They are happy, smiley, obedient and want to do a good job. Supervisor elves have red tunics, clipboards, jangling keys, and like to exercise their authority.

Rudolph & the other Reindeer. At the time of Santa’s disappearance, the other reindeer received offers of work in show-biz. Rudolph is the most successful, and hosts a daily show on daytime TV. Shielded from the world by his manipulative agent, he is imprisoned by fame and a belief that he is better off. Without the magic of Christmas, he has to use a fake red nose and hasn’t flown for years.

The other reindeer are not so famous – some perform matinee dance shows, others present terrible TV programmes, others race for a living. None are as fit as they once were, but apart from Rudolph they would all jump at the chance to go back to Christmas. Comet was the only one who turned down the offers of work elsewhere.

Shady McScrump. McScrump is the main antagonist. He has always hat-

ed Christmas, locked in a perpetual cycle of being naughty and receiving lumps of coal. He owns

Santa’s holiday island and controls Ru-dolph. With them out of the way, he can ensure maxi-

mum profits from sell-ing cheap santa outfits, santa hats and plastic reindeer antlers to par-ents every year.

The Story: ACT 11. It’s a cold, crisp and still night somewhere near the North Pole. The peace is disturbed by grumbling and rumbling as the ice starts to crack. A submarine u-bus breaks through. A gang of elves emerge, obediently forming an orderly line next to a sign: “Santa’s workshop. Induction training”. The supervisor counts down her list. One elf is missing. Finally, Ylva the elf stumbles out of the u-bus. Curious, alert, distracted by the aurora in her beloved night sky - only a cough and a nudge from the supervisor reminds her to join her friends.

2. The new worker elves enter the factory, and are given the grand tour. There are many fantastic departments, all running like clockwork. They are instructed to always follow the rules, follow the arrows, don’t go into restricted areas and never, ever step over the yellow safety lines. Then they are given their various assignments. Ylva’s job is at the end of a production line: she has to post completed presents into a large suction tube marked “For deliv-ery”. Without, of course, stepping over the yellow safety line.

3. It’s Ylva’s first day at work. Quickly bored, she starts to think about what she could improve. She tries some shortcuts, tests out some efficiency measures – each time getting into trouble with the supervisors. Ylva is late for lunch, arriving just as the obedient elves stampede out of the canteen, back to to work.

4. On the morning of her second day, a delivery elf passes on his way to Santa’s office with a trolley stacked with a huge pile of letters. One letter falls off. Ylva picks it up and follows him into a restricted corridor. Outside Santa’s office, Ylve hides as the mail elf forces the letters through a hatch before heading off again. Thinking something is strange, Ylva tiptoes over. She listens at the door. Knocks gently. No answer. She knocks again, louder. Something rustles. She tries the door handle. A bigger rustle. She pulls on the door and – whoosh! – the room, bulging floor to ceiling with unopened letters, gives way, creating a postal-tidal wave! Ylva expertly surfs the wave through the corridors landing in a pile back on the factory floor, at the feet of a tutting supervisor.

5. Back on the line, Ylva wonders aloud about the unanswered letters and the whereabouts of Santa. Her friends are only interested in doing their jobs. What’s more, a huge pile of presents has built up in her absence. Ylva gets back to work. She speeds up, trying out her new inventions, and stuffing as many presents into the suction tube as possible. Carrying a huge pile of presents, she looks down to find herself on the wrong side of the yellow safety line. Uh-oh… Ylva is sucked up the tube!

SLED ZEPPELIN © Sprocket 2016

SLED ZEPPELIN - SUMMARYIt’s the first of December: a group of elves arrive at the North Pole to start working in Santa’s factory. Among them is Ylva, more curious and alert than your average obedient factory elf. After a few days, she starts noticing strange things: letters aren’t being opened and presents aren’t being delivered. Before she can investigate further, she finds herself accidentally ejected from the factory and dumped outside.

She is taken into a barn by Comet, the last of Santa’s reindeer. He tells his tale: many years ago, Santa went on holi-day and never returned. The other reindeer went off to seek fame and fortune in show-biz. Parents had to take over and dress up up as Santa.

Ylva decides to bring back the magic of Christmas. With Comet, she will deliver presents, converting Santa’s rusty old sled into a magical, airship-powered Sled Zeppelin. They build and test the zeppelin with help from elves recruited from the factory. They also manage to regather Santa’s reindeer. All except for Rudolph, whose agent, Shady McScrump won’t allow him to go back.

Ylva, Comet, the reindeer and the elves carry on regardless. They switch on the sled and Nasa’s “Santa Tracker” activates. The whole world sits up. Christmas is back! Hang up your santa outfits! On their way to the first delivery, disaster strikes and the zeppelin crash lands in the ocean. All seems lost.

Rudolph, following the news, learns a horrible truth. McScrump’s plan all along was to get Santa and the reindeer out of the way so he could profit by selling cheap Santa costumes to unwitting parents. Santa is on a desert island, his time-manipulator being used to fool him into thinking no time has passed. Angry at McScrump and himself, Rudolph escapes and rescues Santa. They join the marooned crew of the zeppelin and get back on track. After one final Ylva innovation and a showdown with McScrump, the crew of Santa’s Sled Zeppelin succeed in delivering presents to children all over the world. Ylva and Comet have brought back the magic of Christmas!

If you´re only reading ONE thing today.. Read this! :)

But if you have plenty of time, and you´re completely riveted.. Read this! :)

6. Ylva is flying through a glass tube suspended above a warehouse. It’s a massive warehouse, packed to the ceiling with presents. She can see that construction elves are des-perately extending the warehouse as fast as new presents are deposited. Are presents not being delivered? Ylva finds herself heading towards a junction in the tube: “accepted” one way, “rejected” going the other. Ylva is not a gift. A buzzer sounds, a red light flashes and she’s rejected and ejected, beyond the factory walls, outside, onto a big pile of garbage next to a large barn. As she moves, she makes a noise and an alarm sounds. Torchlight from supervisor elves appear in the dark-ness. Scared, wondering what to do and starting to panic, Ylva is grabbed from behind by a furry arm and a hoof, and is pulled inside the barn.

ACT 2:7. Ylva finds herself face-to-face with an aging reindeer who in-troduces himself as Comet, one of Santa’s old reindeer. A rusty old sled is in the corner of the barn. Comet wonders: what is a common working-Elf doing outside of the factory? She voices her concerns: unopened letters and undelivered gifts. Where is Santa, and why aren’t the other elves worried?

8. Comet’s tale is told in flashback. A long time ago, after another insanely busy Christmas, Santa had a crisis. Kids con-stantly wanting more presents, chimneys getting smaller, and worse, the reindeer were becoming famous and getting too big for their hooves. Santa, exhausted, needed a break. Tempt-ed by a holiday brochure (Shady Tours – ”restful relaxation and amazing activities for seasonal superbeings”). Santa was col-lected by a charter ski-plane and taken off to ”Syden”, a sunny desert island. He never came back.

9. At the same time, Rudolph accepted an offer to show off his red nose and flying skills in films and TV shows from a show-biz agent called McScrump. The other reindeer also accepted less glamorous offers. All except for Comet, who didn’t trust

McScrump. The reindeer broke up. Nasa’s ”Santa Tracker” fell dormant. The magic of Christmas disappeared, and adults were forced to buy santa suits, santa hats, reindeer antlers, and deliver all the presents themselves.

10. Ylva is sad. Comet tries to cheer her up with some magic tricks. As he blows up a balloon animal, Ylva is inspired. She has an idea. They can bring back Christmas! They can deliver presents, using an airship to lift the rusty old sleigh! Ylva tells Comet that they should make... a SLED ZEPPELIN! But they need help. The next morning, using some craftily placed fake direction arrows, Ylva fools her friends into coming to the barn. She convinces them to join. A workshop emerges - drawingboards, a test area, building, painting, balloon sewing. As one elf fiddles with the electronics on the sled, he presses a button and a big red light starts blinking.

CUT TO a journalist asleep in a news gallery, awoken by the alert from their ”santa tracker”. He leaps into action and shortly, media around the world alert the public to the big story. IS SANTA BACK? The wolrd reacts including McScrump the agent, who scowls and reaches for his phone.

11. Back in the North Pole. Indoor testing commences on Zeppelin mk 1. With a long run up and lots of effort, Comet just about gets the sled floating in the air. The elves cheer. But despite trying hard, Comet doesn’t get much forward momentum. The sled crashes down into the snow. Ylva realises they need to take things up a level. And they also need some more help.

12. The elves get to work on the improved Zeppelin mk 2 - with larger balloon. Ylva and Comet set off on a mission to gather up the reindeer. They find Dasher and Prancer performing a dance show at a seaside for pensioners. Vixen and Cupid present terrible dating show ”Guess which stranger you’ll marry today!” on a remote cable TV channel. Donner and Blitzen are sled racing for the Sami. Dancer is a stay-at-home Dad looking after his energetic kids Disco and Tango. All gladly accept the invitation!

13. Rudolph is at home, staring sadly at a mirror surrounded by selfies with celebrities. He is putting new batteries in his fake red nose. A doorbell chimes ”rudolph the red nosed reindeer”. He looks out of the window and sees an elf-girl and all his old reineer friends. They are holding a banner made of christmas tree lights, reading ”Rudolph Come Home”. He smiles, but as he heads for the door, one henchman blocks his way. He hears another henchman saying ”He doesn’t want to see you. Go away. Don’t come back”. McScrump comes to Rudolph’s room, reminding him of his fans, his TV commitments. He also tells Rudolth that the reindeer don’t like him, reminding him that they used to call him names. And besides, Santa is gone and not coming back. ”Stick with me. I look after you now. I’ve always protected you”.

14. Ylva and the gang return to the North Pole, determined to continue. Outdoor testing begins on Zeppelin #2, laden with one of Santa’s magic sacks: bigger on the inside, full of presents. It’s heavier, but all the reindeer (including Dis-co and Tango!) get the sled airborne. Suddenly a hole bursts in the balloon. The air pours out, scattering reindeer and presents before crashing. An alarm sounds. Supervisors and elves emerge from the factory to see what the noise was. Ylva’s big moment: she makes an speech. ”TODAY, WE SAVE CHRISTMAS!”. With some convincing, all the elves join up, and the production line adapts: presents delivered directly to the Sled Zeppelin, a huge take-off ramp built to get the

SLED ZEPPELIN © Sprocket 2016

zeppelin airborne, and Zeppelin mk 3 is under construction. As they train and add features to the sled. Ylva finds a lump of coal, exactly the same size as the puncture hole in Zeppelin mk 2.

15. It is the night before Christmas. Ylva, Comet, the reindeer and a small group of elves set off to cheers and waves from the factory elves and supervisors. One elf, much taller and bigger than the others, isn’t cheering. He is Hench-melf – a henchman disguised as an elf. He speed-dials McScrumpy. The world is following progress on TV screens using Nasa’s Santa tracker. But things quickly start to go wrong. They get lost and are flying in circles above the sea. They are also going far too slowly. The predictometer shows they won’t make it through New Zealand, let alone all around the world. The mood on the sled turns dark. Ylva and Comet try to cheer the others up, but the reindeer start to niggle each other. The other Elves look glum. As they lose faith, they start losing altitude. The Sled Zeppelin disappears behind a giant wave on the black ocean and the santa tracker goes dead...

ACT 3:16. On a desert island called “Syden”, there is one tree, one ice cream van, and one sun lounger. On it, a large figure with a long white beard is lying, wearing small red fluffy swimming trunks. He is deeply sunburnt, lobster coloured. A red coat is hanging from the palm tree along with a large clock-like device on a chain. A henchman dressed as a waiter brings over an ice cream on a tray, shiftily stopping on his way to rotate a dial anticlockwise on the device. It clicks back from “299” to “300 days to Christmas”. Receiving his ice cream, the man remarks how slowly time seems to go here. “Yes, Mr.Claus”.

17. People around the world are frantically glued to their TV sets. Crowds are holding mass vigils in public places. Ru-dolph, also watching on TV, is desperate about the disappearance of his old friends. He starts stamping his hooves in frustration. How could he be so weak? Sparks start to fly and his nose starts to glow. He barges out of his room, knock-ing some henchmen out of his way. As he approaches McScrump’s office, he overhears a phone conversation and peeks around the corner. He is horrified by what he sees. McScrump is on the phone, watching a bank of monitors observing a desert island with a familiar-looking bearded character lying on a beach towel. Rudolph reads a flip chart: “Evil Plan Checklist”. 1. Get ugly Henchmen. 2. Get rid of stupid Santa. 3. Get rid of smelly reindeer. 4. Control pathetic reindeer ringleader Rudolph 5. Make billions selling low quality santa costumes to moron parents. Each point has a tick by it. “Yes Island Henchman, the sled has gone down, just as Henchmelf predicted. Is the package safe…?”…listens… “Good. Make sure you keep it that way. Nothing can stop my plan. Ha ha ha ha ha! Ok. Goodbye. No, you hang up first. Bye”.

18. Rudolph’s moment of clarity. He cannot believe he’s been fooled all this time. He confronts McScrump, who turns on him: “You are nothing without me, I made you! Remember, the other reindeer used to call you names. I saved you from all that! Besides, Christmas is a load of old baloney. I never got the teddy bear I needed. All I got every Christmas was a lump of lousy coal! You can’t cuddle coal!”. Rudolph is furious: “That just proves who you really are. HE knows if you’ve been naughty.” He stomps his hooves, creating more multi-coloured sparks. He looks down and notices that he is hovering, for the first time in years. AND his nose is shining bright red! He charges. McScrumpy cowers, as Rudolph flies over his head, smashing through the office wall and outside into the night sky, travelling at bullet speed.

19. Back on Syden island, the henchman is wearing a sombrero, playing a calypso-style Christmas tune on a ukulele. Santa is tucking into another ice cream. A fireball appears in the sky, moving closer. Santa sits up… “that looks like…”. Rudolph lands spectacularly, knocking the henchman into the water. “RUDOLPH, dear chap, ho ho! What are you doing here?” Rudolph fills Santa in on the full horror. Shady tours. Shady show-biz. Shady santa suits. Many, many years have gone by. “That’s Impossible, old friend. I’ve only been here a few weeks. Look at my clock.” As Santa inspects his clock, a horrifying dawning realisation: “This has been tampered with.” Rudolph carries on “The elves, Santa. The elves are in danger. And the reindeer. They’ve made a sled zeppelin to deliver presents, but it’s crashed!”. Santa grabs his hat, cloak, boots and clock, jumps on Rudolph’s back. Rudolph sinks into the sand. “You’ve put on weight…” but with a burst of sparks, they take flight again.

SLED ZEPPELIN © Sprocket 2016

20. On the cold black ocean. The sled is floating on a huge rubber ring (a safety device installed by the elves). A heavy, loaded atmosphere hangs over the crew. Everyone is looking glum. Donner and Blitzen are playing cards. A shark has opened negotiations with Comet to get a few elves for dinner. Ylva, looking up at the night sky, sees a few shooting stars. She notices one shooting star which isn’t disappearing, but instead is getting larger. Tan-go spots it too and tries to get his dad’s attention, but Dancer is busy discussing life as a house husband with a bored-looking shark. The light gets bigger in the sky and everyone starts to notice. They are suddenly bathed in a red spotlight. Hovering over them are Santa and Rudolph.

Santa asks: “Who is responsible for this amazing new sled”? Comet points to Ylva. “Fabulous! But it looks like you need a bit more positive attitude and positive altitude to bring this Christmas back!” Rudolph zooms around the sled creating a multi-coloured tornado of sparks. The others join him, and the sled launches back into the sky, with Santa at the helm next to Ylva. Santa leans across to Ylva and whispers: “Now for the clever bit”… he adjusts his clock, explaining: “How do you think I deliver 7 billion presents in one night? A little bit of magic, and a whole lot of magic clock!” Ylva is enthralled. Santa invites Ylve to sit next to him who marvels at the whole experience. Of course Christmas needs Santa and all the reindeer!

21. It is Christmas eve, and the deliveries start. Newsflashes circle the globe. Progress is good. Santa is looking as jolly as can be. The elves are star-struck. But they hit a problem. Santa hops confidently into a chimney, and gets stuck. He can’t get out. Ylva has an idea. Moving the zeppelin above Santa, she unravels some elastic from the wind-up propeller. Tying it to her belt, she jumps out of the zeppelin, bungee style, grabbing Santa by the beard yanking him back into the sled. In the same action, she jumps again with a bag of gifts in hand, bungeeing down the chimney. After filling stockings, she bungees back into the sled.

This proves a very effective delivery method. More elves are equipped with bungee ropes, and the process speeds up, delivering to multiple houses at once. This is turning out to be the most effective delivery ever, free from the stress which plagued Santa on previous Christmases. But there’s one last challenge…

22. They land on a tumbledown house. An elf disappears down the chimney with gifts, but the bungee snaps back empty. Another elf is sent down, and the same thing happens. Ylva heads down, and her bungee snaps back, empty. Santa forces himself down the chimney to investigate further – and ends up face to face with a manic McScrump surrounded by henchmen – one in a sombrero, another in his elf costume. They stuff Santa into a stock-ing alongside Ylva and the other elves. The stockings are suspended on a rope and pulley mechanism, held up by the weight of a large sack of coal – everything McScrump received for Christmas as a child. “Christmas is NOT coming back. Not EVER. No-one will find you here.”

23. Just as all seems lost, the whole house tilts. One way, then the other. Slowly at first, then more and more violently. The sack of coal starts to swing, knocking the henchmen over one by one like skittles. Henchmelf gets hit by a stray piece of coal and is knocked out cold. McScrump leans out of a window to see that the reindeer, led by Comet, have attached the zeppelin to the whole house, and have lifted it off the ground, swinging it in every direction. Ylva wriggles her hand free and unties the stockings from the rope. The sack lands on McScrump’s head, bursting and showering him underneath a huge pile of coal. Santa and Ylva are free, and the evil plan is foiled once and for all.

Just as the the sled is just about to depart, Ylva bungees down the chimney once more. She hand a gift to McScrumpy. She smiles, says “Merry Christmas!”, tugs on the bungee and disappears. He opens the present – think-ing it will be coal again. But it’s the best gift he has ever received. The teddy bear he always wanted. He hugs it as tears come to his eye.

24. The Sled Zeppelin starts work again and is better than ever. The bungee invention has really helped. They are going to make it! Parents tuck their children in bed, safe in the knowledge that presents are on their way. Children wake up on Christmas morning, finding their stockings full of the presents that they’ve always wanted. Ylva and Comet saved Christmas. Santa and the reindeer are back together, never again to split up. They return to the North Pole triumphant, where they are greeted by an army of elves… Let the celebrations commence!

nick@sprocket.no / +47 45860756It´s all about imagination!